The SEC's rewrite of custody rules for investment advisers and investment companies entered White House review on Aug. 25, introducing a crypto-focused framework after the agency withdrew a separate 2023 safeguarding proposal. The new rule would clarify how advisers and funds can hold digital assets under SEC requirements, but no draft text is public yet.
The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rewrite of custody rules entered White House review on Aug. 25, placing a new crypto-focused framework into regulatory review after the agency withdrew a separate 2023 safeguarding proposal.
What the new rule covers
The SEC's 2026 regulatory agenda says the planned rule would clarify how investment advisers and investment companies can custody crypto assets under Commission requirements. But the current adviser rule covers client funds and securities and generally requires a qualified custodian to maintain them in separate client accounts, or accounts held by an adviser as agent or trustee.
Next, the new agenda covers both investment adviser client assets and investment-company fund assets, and says the SEC intends to remove burdens from provisions it considers outdated. OIRA's current-review data lists the rulemaking, "Amendments to the Custody Rules," at the proposed-rule stage with an Aug. 25 date.
Public text is not yet available
However, the OIRA entry and SEC agenda provide no proposed rule text. For this SEC action, the public records currently show only the review entry and the agenda description, not the draft's provisions. The agenda says advisers and investment companies have raised questions about holding crypto assets in compliance with current custody requirements, but it does not specify which entities would qualify to custody crypto or which existing provisions the SEC would remove.
A withdrawn 2023 proposal returns
Meanwhile, the earlier safeguarding proposal, issued in February 2023 under a different regulatory identifier, would have retained qualified custodians while broadening the adviser rule beyond funds and securities to all client assets, including crypto. It also proposed protections meant to segregate client assets and protect them if a custodian became insolvent, alongside updated recordkeeping requirements.
Still, the Commission formally withdrew that proposal in June 2025 and said any future regulatory action in the area would require a new proposed rule. The current agenda targets October 2026 for a notice of proposed rulemaking and lists no legal deadline.
Source: The Defiant
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